9 weeks 3 days

I had my first OB appt yesterday. It was with a Nurse Practitioner rather than my regular OB/GYN because I guess that is how they do it. She asked me a bunch of questions about my history. She didn't ask much about Todd, except whether I am married and what his name is. Then she did a pelvic exam and a pap smear. I have never had a pap smear that hurt so much. OMG it was horrible. She kept moving the speculum around like she was trying to get a better view. I knew things were more sensitive down there but geez! Then she stuck her hand in halfway to my belly button to feel for my cervix and find my uterus. So awful. She let me get dressed and went to get an order for bloodwork. When she came back I asked why she hadn't used the Doppler to find the heartbeat. She said that I am "a little fluffy" in that area and it was a little early for even a thin person. She offered to try as long as I promised not to get upset if she didn't find it. She reminded me that I had seen the baby on ultrasound and seen the heartbeat 2 weeks ago. She tried to find it for a few minutes and was able to pick it up for a split second before it moved away. I didn't hear it when she did, but she said she had heard it. She said she couldn't keep it on the doppler for long, so she was sorry.

Then she scheduled me for a Nuchal Translucency test on January 19th. This is a test where they measure the fluid in the baby's neck as a marker for Down's Syndrome. It will be the first ultrasound where the baby will actually look like a baby. I will also have some bloodwork to test for other Down's markers. Todd is planning to come to this one so he can see the baby for the first time. On that same day, I will see my regular OB for my second appointment.

She ordered a bunch of bloodwork and sent me off to another nurse who gave me a flu shot. I got it and then went off to the lab where they drew 8 vials of blood to check for a bunch of stuff.

We are packing up right now for vacation. We are going to tell my parents tomorrow. We got a bunch of scrapbook stuff related to babies and a baby-themed scrapbook. We put it in a box with a note that says, "Dear Gramma, will you make this for me? Love, Baby S." We are telling Todd's mom on Wednesday when we get to her house. She has an Italian Charm Bracelet and we got a few charms for Christmas. She had asked us to get her a Snoopy stuffed animal from Build-A-Bear, but we couldn't afford it. So Todd is going to say, "We're sorry, we couldn't get you the Snoopy, but we hope this will work as a substitute." And hand her a charm that says, "Promoted to Grandma." We also got my sister an ornament that is part of her collection. It is an "Aunt Angel" and says something about how family is fun. I can't wait to see their faces when they open the gifts.

7 weeks 3 days

I had my second ultrasound today. Everything looks great! Baby was measuring well at 7 weeks 1-2 days. The heart was flicking away at 130 beats per minute. It is 1.07cm, which is about triple the size from last week when it was 0.35cm. It was the cutest little blob. It was hard to see, but I swear, it was hanging out with a little book in there or something. Okay that's silly, but it was really cute. <3

6 weeks 3 days

The nurse called on Tuesday and said that Dr. S had decided that I should have the early ultrasound after all. So I went today after work. She had warned me that the tech wouldn't tell me anything and I would have to wait until the next day to hear the results from the Dr's office. I was supposed to be there by 5:30 but I got stuck in traffic. I called the radiology office and they said not to worry about running late because they were busy. There were about 10 other people waiting when I got there. I had been told that I needed to have a full bladder for part of the scan and I was about to burst after waiting over an hour! I ran to the bathroom and then chugged some more water to fill it back up. Shortly after I came back, they called me in.

When the tech started with the external ultrasound, I asked her, "I know they said you wouldn't be able to tell me anything, but can you show me if you see anything?" She said if I was patient, she would look. She couldn't find anything on the external scan so she did an internal scan. After a few minutes of digging around, she turned the screen toward me, pointed to a tiny flickering spot on it and said, "See that flickering spot? That's the baby's heartbeat!" I gasped and said, "Oh my god!" Then I said, "Hi!" to the baby. I felt like a dork, but I immediately fell in love with that little flickering heart. It all seems so real now. It's alive! I almost cried out of happiness.

Now to just keep that little heart beating for the next 8-ish months...